January, ah January, a time of year when cultural events are so numerous one is forced to choose between University of California, San Diego’s ArtPower!, La Jolla Music Society, San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart; between The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse and a plethora of struggling, significant smaller theaters. Choose or wallow. If one is musical maven, dance aficionado and theater buff, the fatigue factor is very real.
Wallow it is. Sleep later. Pick your passion from the following:

Danza
Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater presents the popular, ever amusing and always changing “Intimate Cabaret Dances” with John Diaz, Liv Isaacs-Nollet, Bradley Lundberg, Daniel Marshall, Veronica M. Lamm, Erica Nordin, Jessica Reed de Cancel, and Sadie Weinberg. Truly “sexy, smart art,” it plays at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 18-20, and 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21 at San Diego Museum of Art’s James S. Copley Auditorium in Balboa Park. For tickets and info: www.sandiegodancetheater.org or (619) 220-8497.

Chamber Music
UCSD’s ArtPower! presents the groundbreaking Kronos Quartet “” violinists David Harrington and John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt, and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler “” in a program that includes music by J.G. Thirlwell, Clint Mansell, Derek Clarke, Ram Arayan and Felipe Perez Santiago. The concert takes place at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19 at UCSD’s Mandeville Auditorium, 9500 Gilman Drive. For tickets and info: www.artpower.ucsd.edu or www.ticketmaster.com or (619) 220-TIXS.
UCSD’s ArtPower! presents the renowned Grammy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet, recipients of the 2004 Avery Fisher Prize. The program comprises Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Major; Anton Webern’s “At the Bier of a Young Artist”; and two works by Franz Schubert, String Quartet in D minor and “Death and the Maiden.” 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, Mandeville Auditorium, 9500 Gilman Drive. For ticket and info: www.artpower.ucsd.edu or www.ticketmaster.com or (619) 220-TIXS.
San Diego Chamber Orchestra presents “Poetic Pairs: Great American Poets and Composers,” featuring soprano Megan West, baritone Leon Williams, artistic director/conductor Jung-Ho Pak and the orchestra in performance of texts by James Agee, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman set to the music of Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland and Kurt Weill. Performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 5, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Sixth at Nutmeg, San Diego; 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 8, Sherwood Auditorium, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 9, Del Mar Country Club, Rancho Santa Fe. Tickets and info: www.sdco.org or (858) 350-0929.
La Jolla Music Society presents the renowned Tokyo String Quartet, known for more than 40 recordings and appearances on “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Sesame Street” and many others. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Robert Schumann’s death, they play his String Quartet in F Major. Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Major and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor are also performed. Concert takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 6 (lecture at 7) at Sherwood Auditorium, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla, $25-$75; visit www.lajollamusicsociety.org or (858) 459-3728.
La Jolla Music Society presents pianist Lang Lang in recital at 7 p.m. (pre-concert talk with pianist Bryan Verhoye at 6) Sunday, Jan. 21 at Copley Symphony Hall, 7th and B St., downtown San Diego. Program is unannounced at press time; www.lajollamusicsociety.org or (858) 459-3728.
Mainly Mozart presents the devastatingly talented and beautiful Eroica Trio (with new violinist Susie Park, who permanently replaces Adela Pena) at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27, at The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, La Jolla. Programmed are Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio in B flat and Piano Concerto in E flat. Tickets and information: www.mainlymozart.org or (619) 239-0100.

Orchestral
San Diego Symphony presents the following programs in January:
Jahja Ling conducts the orchestra in a Jacobs’ Masterworks Series concert featuring guest artist Alban Gerhardt at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Jan. 12-13, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14 at Copley Symphony Hall, 7th and B St., downtown San Diego. Programmed are Bright Sheng’s “Tibetan Swing,” Sir Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6.
Marvin Hamlisch conducts a Winter Pops program featuring New Orleans icon Aaron Neville in an evening of “Bayou Soul” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19-20 at Copley Symphony Hall.
Nuvi Mehta conducts a Light Bulb Discovery series program titled “Mozart & the Age of Enlightenment” at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26. Angela Cheng plays Piano Concerto No. 12 and the orchestra performs Symphony No. 32 and “Eine kleine Nachtmusik.”
For tickets and information for all of the above performances, visit www.sandiegosymphony.com or phone (619) 235-0804.

San Diego Opera presents Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” featuring Italian bass-baritone Ferrucio Furlanetto in the title role. Performances take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27; 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30; 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4, at the Civic Theatre, Third and B St., downtown San Diego. Tickets and info: www.sdopera.com or (619) 533-7000.

Teatro
Broadway San Diego presents “Legends,” featuring Joan Collins and Linda Evans as two bitchy, dueling divas. The camp factor is high, but this is part of the appeal. Performances scheduled Jan. 9-14 at the Civic Theatre, 3rd and B St., downtown San Diego, www.ticketmaster.com or (619) 220-TIXS. Schedule and info at www.broadwaysd.com.
Challenge Theatre Company presents “War and Quiet Flowers,” which comprises scripts about war from four award-winning San Diego playwrights: Jim Caputo, Jason Connors, George Soete and Matt Thompson. Scheduled Jan. 7-10, 14-17, and 21-24 at Sixth at Penn Theatre, 3704 Sixth Ave., San Diego. Info and tickets: www.sixthatpenn.com or (619) 688-9210.
Cygnet Theatre presents the San Diego premiere of Dael Orlandersmith’s “Yellowman,” which concerns a Southern African-American and her light-skinned sweetheart. Producers describe it as “heartwarming and ultimately heartbreaking.” Directed by Esther Emery, it plays Thursday-Sunday, Jan 13-Feb. 11 at Cygnet Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. Tickets and info: www.cygnettheatre.com or (619) 337-1525, ext 3.
San Diego Repertory Theatre presents The Flying Karamazov Brothers in the world premiere of Paul Magid’s “Don Quixote.” Directed by Sam Woodhouse, it plays Jan. 12-Feb. 4 at the Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown San Diego. Tickets and Info: www.sandiegorep.com or (619) 544-1000.
North Coast Repertory Theatre presents Eugene O’Neill’s “A Moon for the Misbegotten.” Staged by David Ellenstein and featuring Richard Baird, Karla Kash, Jonathan McMurtry, David Anthony Smith and Brendon Walker, it plays Jan. 13-Feb. 11 at North Coast Repertory, 987-D Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach. Tickets and info available: www.northcoastrep.org or (858) 481-2155.
Diversionary Theatre presents the U.S. premiere of Ashraf Johaardien’s “Happy Endings Are Extra,” directed by Rosina Reynolds, one of San Diego magazine’s 50 people to watch in 2007. Plays Thursday-Sunday, Jan. 19-Feb. 11 at 4545 Park Blvd., San Diego. Tickets and info: www.diversionary.org or (619) 220-0097.The Old Globe presents the West Coast premiere of “Ace,” a new musical by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker. Staged by Stafford Arima, it plays Thursday, Jan. 18- Feb 18 in the Old Globe Theatre. The plot concerns a troubled prepubescent boy and his healing journey back in time with ace pilots of World Wars I and II. Tickets and info: www.theoldglobe.org or (619) 23-GLOBE.
UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance presents Frank Galati’s “Heart of a Dog,” based on the novella by Mikhail Bulgakov, staged by Charlie Oates Friday, Jan. 19 through Feb. 27 in the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, UCSD. Due to size of house (80 seats), reservations are a must. Ticket and information: noon to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday at Theatre District Central Box Office at Sheila & Hughes Potiker Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse or (858) 534-4574.